The Aristocrats

9/19January 2015: The Aristocrats First-Ever Residency – At Alvas Showroom

The Aristocrats are proud to announce our first-ever residency, at one of our favorite venues: Alvas Showroom in San Pedro, CA.

The four shows will take place the week after the January 2015 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. And it’s a special occasion, because we’ll be debuting material from our upcoming third studio album, which we’re going to record right after this residency is over. So we’ll be working through these songs for the first time live, and the idea is that we’ll carry that live energy into the studio with us.

Even though we’re doing four shows, seats are still limited (Alvas capacity is about 80), so if you’re thinking of attending, we strongly recommend advance purchase through the Alvas website, at the links below:

THE ARISTOCRATS
FOUR-NIGHT RESIDENCY AT ALVAS SHOWROOM
SAN PEDRO, CA, USA

Thursday, January 29, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693143

Friday, January 30, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693144

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 7:30pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693145

Sunday, February 1, 2015, 5pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693146

Hope to see you there. Should be fun. :-)

Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats

9/08The “Culture Clash” World Tour Is Over…

After 15 months and over 100 shows around the world, the Aristocrats’ Culture Clash World Tour is now in the books. T H A N K Y O U to everyone all over the world who came out to see us play way too many notes and make funny noises with toy animals and smartphone synth apps. BOING, we’ll do it again…sometime next year.

We didn’t manage to get any great end-of-tour pictures due to darkness and other factors (*cough* alcohol *cough*), so instead we’ll leave you with this fairly comprehensive website photo album from our gig in Vietnam, which goes a long way to symbolizing just how many amazing places we were able to see on this tour, and also how many wonderful people we met and shared our music with. Culture clash? Not with our fans.

Check out this amazing photo essay from our Vietnam gig right here.

In the meantime:

* The “Culture Clash” bass/drum backings and transcriptions/tab remain available at

https://jamtrackcentral.com/official-tab-store/aristocrats

* Work on the CD/DVD set Culture Clash Live continues, with more and more material being packed into it with every passing week. Here’s a sneak preview of the artwork for the t-shirt that will accompany the package for those who want such a thing:

* And now your reward for reading this far: Our next shows will be in Southern California in the last week of January 2015 (the week after NAMM), where we will do a four-night residency to debut our brand new material for the third studio album. More info and official announcements on that soon.

Once again, thanks for following us and making this all possible. We remain grateful and can’t wait to do it again…after we get some rest.

-The Aristocrats

9/01Bass/Drums Transcriptions/Tab/Backing Tracks For “Culture Clash” Available NOW!

It’s here: The full transcriptions and backing tracks packages for bass and drums on the album Culture Clash are now available at Jam Track Central!

Bassists who pick this up will get PDF transcriptions (notation + tab) of every song on the album, personally proofed by Bryan Beller. They’ll also get a set of music-minus-bass audio tracks – with guitar and drums only, for playing along.

The drums package is the same, all verified by Marco Minnemann, with a little bonus: Drummers will get music-minus-drums tracks with click *and* without click, so they can play along either way.

Guitarists shouldn’t feel left out either. Protip: If you get the bass package, the no-bass mixes expose every nuance of Guthrie’s playing in a way that you may not have heard before. Of course, if you want the guitar transcriptions, that’s in the guitar package only.

Just click right HERE to check it out (with free audio previews) and pick it up today.

Meanwhile, we’re full speed ahead on what will be called Culture Clash Live – a CD/DVD 2-disc set that will contain performances literally from around the world:

* Whittier, California, USA
* Mexico City, MEXICO
* Manchester, UK
* Tilburg, NETHERLANDS
* Zoetermeer, NETHERLANDS
* Bangkok, THAILAND
* Tokyo, JAPAN

Seven shows, six countries, three continents – it takes the Culture Clash concept to a whole new level!

Plus, we’re working on a special surprise for the Super Deluxe package. More details coming soon, but we hope to have it available by the end of 2014.

Thanks as always for following along and being interested in our Aristocratic activities. And don’t forget the last four shows of the Culture Clash World Tour:

Sep 1 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
Sep 3 – Cafe Rosenberg – Reykjavik, ICELAND
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK

If you’re closeby, come on out! It’ll be a while before we’re back out touring, so…you know what to do.

Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats

8/20Thank you ASIA – Now Back To EUROPE!

And that’s that. Thank you ASIA for an amazing three weeks! We sign off from Osaka, Japan, for just a few days before we reconvene in Italy for the final 5 dates of the “Culture Clash” world tour. And here’s some news:

* We ARE working on a live CD/DVD of the “Culture Clash” tour, and it’s going to contain footage from literally all over the world – including two stops on our Asia tour. More details on this soon!

* The bass/drums backing tracks and complete transcriptions from “Culture Clash” will be available at JamTrackCentral on September 1.

* Here’s the European dates that will wrap up the entire “Culture Clash” World Tour:

Aug 28 – Rock On Festival (free entrance) – Martirano Lombardo (Catanzaro), IT
Sep 1 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
Sep 3 – Cafe Rosenberg – Reykjavik, ICELAND (venue updated on Aug 28!)
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK

And finally, as we like to say, here’s a shot of the band in Osaka after the last show ended last night. Thanks again to all!!

8/16One Night In Bangkok

Hello everyone! Pardon the punny subject of this all-too-brief post, but we’re just checking in from Bangkok, Thailand on the night before our sold out 700-seat theater performance there. The entire Asia tour has been one amazing experience after another: Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Manila, and now here…we’ve made lots of new friends and we’re so grateful to everyone who’s come out and helped to make this tour such an overwhelming success. Here’s a picture from the stage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam:

We’ve got just three shows left in Asia, and then it’s off to Europe for the final five shows of the Culture Clash World Tour. Here’s our remaining dates:

The Aristocrats
Culture Clash World Tour
Asia Leg

Aug 17 – Bangkok – Overdrive Magazine Anniversary (Aksra Theater) – THAILAND (clinic + concert)
Aug 19 – Tokyo – Club Citta – JAPAN
Aug 20 – Osaka – Big Cat – JAPAN

Final Europe Leg

Aug 28 – Rock On Festival (free entrance) – Martirano Lombardo (Catanzaro), IT
Sep 1 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
Sep 3 – Harpa/Norðurljós – Reykjavik, ICELAND
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK

If you’re anywhere near any of these locations, we hope you’ll join us to make the final stretch of this world tour something to remember.

Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats

7/30Asia & Europe Dates, Plus BIG News

Hello everyone – it’s only days before we start our first tour of Asia in three years! So we’ll keep it brief and just send a quick reminder of those dates, plus our now-confirmed select European dates that will serve as the wrap-up of our worldwide Culture Clash tour. But we’ll break some news here as well, we promise.

First, the dates:

THE ARISTOCRATS
CULTURE CLASH WORLD TOUR
SE ASIA LEG

Aug 4 – Seoul – Gunguk University Auditory – KOREA
Aug 6 – Beijing – Mao Live House – CHINA
Aug 8 – Shanghai – Q.House (QSW) – CHINA
Aug 10 – Tai Peh – Riverside Live Music House – TAIWAN (clinic + concert)
Aug 11 – Hong Kong – KITEC MusicZone – HONG KONG (concert only – this said “clinic” in a previous mailing, sorry about that)
Aug 13 – Ho Chi Minh City – HCMC Music Center – VIETNAM
Aug 15 – Manila – Amber Ultra Lounge – PHILIPPINES (clinic + concert)
Aug 17 – Bangkok – Overdrive Magazine Anniversary (Aksra Theater) – THAILAND (clinic + concert)
Aug 19 – Tokyo – Club Citta – JAPAN
Aug 20 – Osaka – Big Cat – JAPAN

SELECT EUROPE LEG

Now for the breaking news:

* An edited version of our live show at Paradox in Tilburg, Netherlands will air on Dutch Radio 6 on August 2, 10-11pm (22:00-23:00) Central European Time. Thanks to Pieter van Hoogdalem and everyone and Radio 6 for making this happen! Listen live at http://www.radio6.nl.

* The bass/drums transcriptions and backing tracks for our entire Culture Clash album will be available at Jam Track Central on September 1. We pushed this back from August 1. It will be worth the wait. :-)

* The BIG news: We are starting work on a live album! Tentatively (and simply) called Culture Clash Live, it looks to be a CD + DVD Deluxe Package culled from multiple shows on the Culture Clash tour. We hope to have it out in late November of this year. More news on this soon!

Thanks again for following along, and stay tuned for some even bigger news about 2015 coming soon. :-)

Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats

6/15Asia & Europe Tours – This Summer!

Hey everyone – we’re writing to remind our friends in Asia and Europe that we’re coming back for one last leg of the Culture Clash tour this summer! The Asia tour is now completely confirmed and the short Europe leg is firming up as we speak. You can see our confirmed Asia tour dates below:

The Aristocrats
Culture Clash World Tour
Asia Leg
(for full details and ticket links, click here)

Aug 4 – Seoul – Gunguk University Auditory – KOREA
Aug 6 – Beijing – Mao Live House – CHINA
Aug 8 – Shanghai – Q.House (QSW) – CHINA
Aug 10 – Tai Peh – Riverside Live Music House – TAIWAN (clinic + concert)
Aug 11 – Hong Kong – KITEC MusicZone – HONG KONG (concert only, no clinic – sorry for previous bad listing!)
Aug 13 – Ho Chi Minh City – HCMC Music Center – VIETNAM
Aug 15 – Manila – Amber Ultra Lounge – PHILIPPINES (clinic + concert)
Aug 17 – Bangkok – Overdrive Magazine Anniversary (Aksra Theater) – THAILAND
Aug 19 – Tokyo – Club Citta – JAPAN
Aug 20 – Osaka – Big Cat – JAPAN

We’ve gotten some amazing promotional posters from the promoters of each show, and we thought we’d share some of them with you at the bottom of this e-mail. We especially like the Vietnam show’s seating chart, which we’ll show you right here.

Marco thinks they should add a moshpit section and call it “Gaping Head Wound”. :-)

And here’s what we know about our short Europe run, with a couple of dates still to book:

Europe Leg
(for full details and ticket links, click here)

Aug 28 – Rock On Festival (free entrance) – Martirano Lombardo (Catanzaro), IT
Sep 3 – Harpa/Norðurljós – Reykjavik, ICELAND
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK

It’s nice that we’ll end our touring year in Guthrie’s homeland, don’t you think? And yes, we’re going to Iceland. :-)

We also wanted to take a quick moment and speak to our fans in South America and Canada. Unfortunately, though we tried mightily, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get there this year. In South America, our available schedule was in conflict with the World Cup, which made things very difficult for booking. Canada is a different story – to make a long story short, there’s a new law that levies a very significant tax on non-Canadian bands playing clubs. Not theaters, not stadiums, just clubs and bars! It made it impossible for us to put a tour together. If you’re Canadian and you think this is bogus, perhaps you should write your local elected official about it. Until then, we’ll keep trying to find ways to get there without having to hand over our wallets in the process.

Also, we’re still finishing up the bass and drums backing tracks/transcriptions for the Culture Clash album. We believe we’re looking at a July release for those.

And finally (as Guthrie might say), we are just beginning our discussions about the third studio album, which if all goes well, we plan to release in 2015.

Now, please enjoy some Asian tour poster graphics, and thanks so much for being on this very Aristocratic mailing list.

Cheers to all,
The Aristocrats